I thought only singular feminine nouns ended with an "a".

I was on another site where they list various Italian words, they then have a link where you can play the sound.

One of the words they have listed is "il cuscino" the pillow or the cushion. When you click on the sound link, it sounds like the speaker is saying "i cuscina" the "i" would tell me it is plural but what is with the "a" at the end of "cuscina"? I would of thought the plural of cuscino is i cuscini. Am I wrong?

The same thing with "il campanello" . Here the speaker is clearly using the singular il but it sounds like she is saying "campanella". I thought it might be how the speaker pronounces "o" but I checked other words ending in "o" and she clearly uses the Italian "o" in many other words. Il bagno is just one example.

I can provide the link if need but not sure what the policy is here. I didn't want to advertise here for another site.

hmm.... I think the plural of "il cuscino" is "i cuscini" and there is a difference between "il campanello" (doorbell) and "la campana" (church bell) or "la campanella" (little church bell).... confused yet?

Although in other cases, rules just get broken. Take: "il braccio" (the arm). The plural is: "le braccia" (the arms).... It just works out weird that way.

And look at la mano, le mani, il tema, la foto (although in "foto"'s case, it's just an abbreviated "fotografia" )

Anyway, goes to show that even with all the rules in the world.... there are still exceptions

The two examples you quote are "i" no matter what you hear.
But yes, pianistà, eletricistà and a bunch of professions end in à. And then there are those arms, as Katie points out.

dacobabe is right, it's il campanello/i campanelli and il cuscino/i cuscini (no As involved). They must have chosen a person pronouncing in a weird way to confuse people
If you wish to get more confused about strange singular/plural have a look here , well, not the very beginning...
Sorry dacobabe, what do you mean with the accent on the A?

quote:

They must have chosen a person pronouncing in a weird way to confuse people

I sort of figured this. I have seen this problem with a number of CDs and websites. Yes, it can be very confusing.

Hi
Judith in umbria is incorrect when she says that elettricista and pianista are written with an accented final a. They are both masculine nouns but the final a is not written with an accent. The word for electricity - elettricita' is written with an accented final a because the final a is given the accent when the word is spoken like citta'.

There are words such as muro and osso that have two plurals, with slightly different meanings.
i muri, le mura; gli ossi, le ossa... but the a ending is feminine.

quote:

(N.B. Il nome "muro" ha un plurale sia maschile che femminile. Il plurale regolare è la forma maschile "i muri", mentre la variante femminile "le mura" si usa soprattutto in contesti che si riferiscono all'idea di "muro di cinta" o di "fortezza", come ad es., in "le mura di una città" = the walls of a city; "le mura domestiche" = home, "chiudersi tra quattro mura" = to seclude oneself.)

And some Greek-derived nouns that end in a and are masculine, such as problema, schema, teorema. Typically the ista words (iste in French) are nouns that apply to professions, ideologies etc and do not change forms between masculine and feminine. But the nouns that end in à are always feminine - they are the same nouns that typically end in é in French and ad in Spanish...

Though I'm sure someone will come up with an exception.

Why is Nicola a masculine name and what is the fem name for Nicole?

Nicola derives from the Greek "Nikòlaos", which means "winner amongst the people". Agio Nikòlaos is also the protector of Greece. Obviously, Nikòlaos is a masculine name, so it's those who use it as a feminine name that go wrong. The feminine is Nicoletta.
Other Italian masculine names tha end in "a" are Andrea, Luca and Mattia (quite common), and Elia, Disma and Geremia (quite uncommon). All of them, unlike Nicola, have a Jewsish origin.

My great grandmother (born in 1839 in Montesilvano) was named Nicola Emedia D'Ascenzo. Her father was named Nicola. I have the birth certificate as documentation.
What's up with that?
Sometimes I wonder that the Mayor/Clerk taking the information in writing doesn't hear the info correctly. Or does the second name make it OK? In that same vein, Some other masculine (combo) names especially from the old days are Angelomaria (my uncle) and there are a few others ending ....maria.
PS
Getting back to masculine nouns (not names)ending in "a". Doesn't uova qualify? Plural of uovo.

quote:

Originally posted by avvocato:Some other masculine (combo) names especially from the old days are Angelomaria (my uncle) and there are a few others ending ....maria.

In Spanish speaking countries María can also be a masculine name and it is almost always used as a middle name. My Dad had a cousin named Angel María and there was Spain's former PM, José María Aznar López. The usage of María as a male name seems to be less common nowadays.

Milano inherited the use of Maria as a masculine from the Spanish. In the old days everyone in Milano had Maria amongst his or her names. Usucally a woman was Maria Something, while a man was Something Maria. Obviously one got known as Something, but there were still an awful lot of Maria or Mariuccia in Milano.

There are so many María Something in my family and circle of friends that we’re called by our middle names or nicknames. I have a cousin in Palermo whose name is María and she has a granddaughter named after her but everyone calls her Mary. My Italian relatives chose to call me by my middle name, Isabella, even though I’ve been called Marisabel since the day I was born. In true Italian (old) fashion, I was named after my grandmother.

il pilota, il papa - what are the plurals of these masculines?

I piloti and I papi

Just a thought.
I assumed you meant the Pope when you wrote il papa. If you meant il papa' with an accent on the final a, meaning father, then the plural is the same as the singular:
il papa', i papa'